Time Trial
by Gothamite
Summary: Set in the continuity of the short-lived TV Show, this shows the Flash racing through time periods to catch the sinister villain, The Ghost.


The Flash...Time Trial  
  
The Flash, all related characters and indicia are trademarks of DC Comics. The Flash TV Show is a registered trademark of Warner Bros. Inc. **************************************************************************** ************************ This is based on the classic TV Show 'The Flash' starring John Wesley- Shipp. Sadly, the show only lasted one short season but it totally rocked. Like 'Superboy: The Series', this was not a show for weirdoes who live for TV and want to see funny tongue-in-cheek superhero shows (like 'Lois And Clark'), this was a show for comic fans. It took itself seriously both from a special effects and musical point of view. In case you are not familiar with the TV Show: The Flash here is Barry Allen. He is a police forensic scientist that was struck by lightning whilst in a lab, making him the fastest man alive. He shares his secret with his close friend Tina, a fellow scientist that works for STAR Labs in Central City. There were many villains in the short time that this show was on the air (the greatest being the Trickster) but I chose the Ghost because he was just so easy to manipulate as opposed to other villains. The Ghost is a villain from the 1950's who used television signals to detonate bombs. After being defeated by the vigilante, Nightshade, Ghost froze himself in an experimental freeze chamber. In 1990, he tried again to run Central City into the ground, but was beaten by the combined forces of the Flash and an elderly Nightshade.  
  
BY THE WAY: It is inevitable that there be bloopers involving fourth- dimensional probabilities so try not to judge it too hard. **************************************************************************** ************************  
  
CHAPTER I:  
  
Central City. The Year 2045: The doors opened and he walked out from his cell. Finally, he was free, free to go ahead with his plan. If things went as planned, there would be considerable differences in his lifestyle.  
  
He opened the door to his new apartment. It was bleak. The awful wallpaper was slightly torn and the bed was not made. Nevertheless, it was better than the conditions he had to suffer in Central Penitentiary. He unpacked his suitcase. There was not much in it. Just a toothbrush, some clothes, and a newspaper. It was a copy of the Daily Star. He dumped it down on his bed. The headline read 'Time-Warp Remote Makes Larger Time-Machines Irrelevant'. Ever since the discovery of time displacement in 2036, the technology had been under a state of constant evolution. Obviously only trained Government Officials were allowed to use them in the direst of situations, but it still made things easier to have a remote instead of hauling a massive booth-like object around.  
  
Russell had to have it. He could use it to help his past self make his future-self wealthier. He smiled at the thought.  
  
STAR Labs lay quiet just beyond the outskirts of Central City. Unbeknownst to the public, this was where the time-warp remote was being held. Russell took out a strange remote device, and used it to melt away the door.  
  
Security was low because no one suspected that it would get out that the warp remote was being held here. The only security was an overweight loafer who fell asleep in his newspaper.  
  
Russell activated the laser again and melted away the safe. Inside, a handheld remote lay beside a small instruction manual. Russell took it up in his hands as though he were holding the key to the universe in his hands. Pressed a button on it and a beeping noise was heard. Russell already knew how to work the device.  
  
"Year, 1991," he smiled, "date, the twenty-eighth of February. Time, twenty- two thirty and seven seconds."  
  
A confirming beeping ensued and a bright light circulated the small aerial at the top of the remote.  
  
Central City Penitentiary. The Year 1991.  
  
Russell sat in his cell looking up at a bunch of newspaper clippings. 'The Flash defeats Trickster' was the headline of the Daily Star.  
  
'Nightshade Biopic Shatters Movie Records' was the headline of Variety.  
  
But the one that really spited Russell was,  
  
'The Flash and fifties hero defeat the Ghost'.  
  
Suddenly, the wall beside him melted away, and in walked an elderly man in a strangely futuristic trench coat. Russell stared at him, confused and startled. Suddenly, it was all clear. It was Russell himself. Only older.  
  
"What?" Russell wondered aloud.  
  
"It's time to get me out of here," the older Russell answered.  
  
The two walked out through the hole that the older Russell had just created. They got to the older Russell's car when his younger self asked,  
  
"Just who are you?"  
  
"I'm you in about fifty years. I came back to change the past," the older Russell answered. "Didn't think it would be so easy."  
  
"How did you travel back in time?" The younger version asked.  
  
"I had friends in high places. They were able to tell me where this time- warp remote was, and even how it worked."  
  
"Let me see that!" The younger Russell said, embracing the device his older self had just given to him.  
  
"The future, the past, the present, it's all in my hands!" The younger Russell smiled.  
  
The car zoomed through the streets just as the guards realized what was going on. Police sirens blazed as they went in pursuit of the rent-a-car.  
  
Barry saw what was happening. He managed to see that the Ghost was inside the car with some older man. The Ghost? How could he have broken out of jail?  
  
The police cars would never catch up to the rent-a-car. Barry zoomed into action, shedding away his civilian garments. He ran after the car as the Flash.  
  
Faster and faster he ran, eventually catching up to the car. He knocked on the window as the old man smiled at him. It was an older version of the Ghost himself! But how?  
  
The old man tried to bash the car into the Flash, but all the Flash had to do was run quickly over the car, causing it smash into the wall of a nearby building.  
  
"Get out! Quick!" The old man said to his younger self.  
  
He grabbed his younger self's hand and took out the small remote.  
  
"Year, twenty-fifty, date, first of March, time, twenty-two thirty eight."  
  
A blinding light shot out from the top of the remote and the two were gone.  
  
"Time travel." The Flash deducted.  
  
He had seen it many times before.  
  
CHAPTER II:  
  
"Hi Barry!" Tina said with a smile as Barry handed her a cup of coffee. He then took a sip of his own.  
  
"Why the long face?" She asked.  
  
"The Ghost is using time-travel equipment. He escaped to the year twenty- fifty with his future self." Barry answered. "He can do anything he wants now. He can erase histories; kill people before they're even born, anything. And now Doctor Powell's passed away, there's just about nothing I can do about it."  
  
Tina's face fell also until she came to a startling realization.  
  
"Barry,"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I think I might have an idea."  
  
She opened a door and dragged a strange, bulky, treadmill out.  
  
"What's that supposed to do?" Barry asked.  
  
"I have a theory," she answered "that if you can hit lightspeed on this cosmic treadmill that I built, the relativity servos will breach the time stream and bring you any..when you want to go."  
  
"So you're saying that I can use this thing as...as a Time Machine?" Barry inquired.  
  
"Yes." Tina answered. "We've been working on it for some time, but it's useless if we can't travel at the speed of light. But you can. And you can use it to find the Ghost."  
  
She hauled the device outside while Barry discarded his civilian clothes, becoming the Flash.  
  
She pressed a few buttons and then turned toward the scarlet speedster.  
  
"Oh," she said, startled as he could change into the suit so quick. "It's ready!"  
  
The Flash moved up to the treadmill and started running. Faster and faster. The sound barrier broke. Tina stepped back. Even more speed ensued until it appeared that his feet were not even there.  
  
Lightning-like energy tore out from under the treadmill, twirling around and around, creating a vortex.  
  
"It's working! Good job Barry!"  
  
"Uh, Tina?" Barry asked as he increased his speed. "Are you sure this thing is safe?"  
  
But he could not get an answer. The vortex was moving in the Flash's direction. As he ran faster, eventually he was running through time and space, strange colours were everywhere. He looked behind him and saw that the hole in the time stream was now sealing itself up. He then looked ahead and saw another one forming. He ran faster again, reaching top speed, faster than the speed of light. He ran through the opening vortex, the treadmill flying out through the future of Central City.  
  
The momentum of lightspeed caused the treadmill to sail through the air for a few moments, as though it were flying, until finally, it crashed into building. The Flash, thinking on his toes, managed to vibrate into the building before he injured himself.  
  
The treadmill destroyed; there was no way for the Flash to get back to his own time. The only way would be to get the time-travel equipment the future Ghost had been talking about.  
  
"Come on!" The past Ghost said. "Let's pull a job on Central Bank! With the weapons we have, no one will be able to stop us!"~  
  
"Wrong!" Future Ghost exclaimed. "I brought you forward five years of where I originally lived. Who knows how powerful our weapons will be now? They could be useless!"  
  
Suddenly, the future Ghost's hand started to turn transparent.  
  
"Oh no!" He exclaimed.  
  
"What is it?" The younger Ghost asked.  
  
"I am being deleted from space and time! My destiny has been altered!"  
  
Within minutes, the future Ghost was deleted completely.  
  
"Finally!" The one and only Ghost smiled. "The future I predicted, and more!"  
  
Central Bank was just about to close its doors when suddenly, a voice boomed through the televisions in the building.  
  
"Central Bank, this is the Ghost. Loot your vaults immediately or you this room will fill with poison gas!"  
  
Screams were heard as the power went out. The Ghost had used his television signals to detonate his electro-magnetic pulse bomb. There would be no power for fifty blocks.  
  
The Ghost opened his loot bag and stuffed as many bills as he possibly could into the bag.  
  
Suddenly, the lights came back, making a laughing stock of the Ghost.  
  
Two guards wearing special protective gear grabbed him and brought him outside.  
  
The Flash, still combing the city for clues, found a television store. On one of the screens was the Ghost. There were police restraining him, while the newsreader explained what had happened. Suddenly, something else came on the screen. A red blur; it was the Flash.  
  
"NO!" Ghost protested "your not bringing me back to our time!"  
  
He started trying to escape from the grip of the two guards on either arm, but it was no use.  
  
Unbeknownst to them, he slipped the remote out of his pocket and into his hands.  
  
"Year, 3099" Ghost spoke into the remote.  
  
"NO!" Flash exclaimed, running after him.  
  
"Date, first of March. Time, twenty-two fifty."  
  
The Flash grabbed onto him as the bright light ensued them both.  
  
CHAPTER III:  
  
Constant light covered them both until finally, it went out, leaving them in a wrecked city. The buildings were torn; the phone booths had been smashed and knocked over, and the cars had been burned to a crisp.  
  
The Ghost walked out into the city. He heard a cracking sound under his foot. Upon further inspection, he saw that he had just stood on a human skull.  
  
"Armageddon," he smiled. "This world has been the subject of Armageddon!"  
  
"We're going home Ghost!" The Flash said, grabbing the Ghost's shoulder.  
  
"No!" The Ghost shouted.  
  
He whirled around with his laser beam remote. He fired a thin beam at the Flash, piercing straight through his shoulder in a cloudy mist of blood. The Flash fell to the ground while the Ghost ran off into the night.  
  
For miles he wandered, searching for some form of life. Eventually he found a small group of people. A colony of people scurrying around for food.  
  
"Hey!" The Ghost shouted over at one of them.  
  
The young boy was in a state of awe. This man had clean clothes! He ran over to him.  
  
"I'm from the past. What happened here?" The Ghost inquired.  
  
The boy made a fist and crashed it into his other hand, making exploding sounds.  
  
"A nuclear bomb?" The Ghost asked.  
  
The boy nodded enthusiastically. The Ghost turned around and walked back into the night.  
  
"I can steal anything I want here," he thought. "Then I can go back to any time I want and do anything I want. And the Flash...will be stuck here forever."  
  
STAR Labs sat grimly on the outskirts of town. The better part of it had been torn away, probably from the explosion. The Ghost made his way inside eagerly to see what toys he could take.  
  
There he found a doctor wearing a lab coat and studying a treadmill-like device. The Ghost also found a strange power box with a turret pointing up from it. Beside it was a remote control and blueprints. The Ghost picked up the blueprints quietly.  
  
"A remote control machine!" The Ghost exclaimed aloud.  
  
"Who are you?" the man said, spinning around. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"That's none of your concern!" The Ghost smiled.  
  
He took out his laser-remote and tried to fire it at the doctor. But the doctor managed to slam his palm into a button marked, 'Force-Field'. A thin blue sheet of energy encased the doctor while the laser beam deflected back, taking a chunk out of the wall.  
  
"I'll be going now!" The Ghost grinned. "Year, 1984. Date, twenty-second of March. Time, midday."  
  
The usual light ensued and the time stream swallowed up the Ghost.  
  
CHAPTER IV:  
  
The Flash painfully made his way to STAR Labs, where he hoped to find some form of time travelling equipment that he could use. With every step, the pain in his shoulder got worse. He needed to get medical attention, and fast.  
  
"Hello?" He called out. "Hello?"  
  
"Yes!" a voice shouted. "In here!"  
  
The Flash followed the voice into what looked like Tina's old lab. There he found a young man switching a force field off.  
  
"The Flash!" The young man smiled. "I've heard stories about you! You were one of the most famous of all the twentieth century superheroes!"  
  
The Flash grinned, but then suddenly remembered the pain in his arm.  
  
"Listen," the Flash started. "I've got a nasty flesh wound in my shoulder. Do you think you could-?"  
  
"Sure!" The doctor said enthusiastically, grabbing a box of medical supplies.  
  
He bandaged up the Flash's injury carefully.  
  
"By the way," the Flash started. "You don't happen to have any time travel equipment do you?"  
  
"It all got blown up in the explosion." The doctor replied. "Except for one."  
  
"Well, can I use it?" The Flash asked as the doctor put the finishing touches to his bandage.  
  
"It's tricky." The doctor replied. "It's like a treadmill that has to be moving at the speed of light to breach the time-stream,"  
  
"Don't worry," The Flash assured. "I can use it."  
  
"This is an updated model of a twentieth-century design we found years ago." The doctor explained as he pulled a much more futuristic model of Tina's treadmill out of the closet. "It can withstand a lot more damage."  
  
He hauled it outside, the Flash following close behind.  
  
"If I remember correctly," the doctor said, punching in a few buttons, "the Ghost said he was going to 1984."  
  
"1984?" The Flash wondered. "What does he want to do there?"  
  
The Flash stepped onto the treadmill and pressed the GO button. He started running. Faster and faster, until the sound barrier broke under his speed. He continued running, until it was utterly impossible to see his feet anymore. He was now travelling at the speed of light. The doctor laughed in delight as the time stream ripped open under the pressure, creating an opening for the Flash. The treadmill flew into the stream without warning, as the stream closed itself.  
  
This new model went a lot faster than the previous model. Flash could swear that it was even increasing his speed.  
  
The signal changed from Looney Tunes to the face of a young man.  
  
"Good day Central City. I am the Ghost. Tonight at midnight, I will set off bombs located in every block of the city, unless I am paid one billion dollars. You have less than twelve hours left." At the end of the message, the Ghost laughed sinfully.  
  
All around the city, a panic ensued. People desperately tried to escape the city before this madman went ahead with his plan. Where would the city get one billion dollars?  
  
Later, the Ghost activated his remote control machine. The turret fired out a signal to the vehicle the Ghost wanted to control. He then controlled the red van with the remote. He drove the car to STAR Labs, and crashed it into the building as hard as he could. He then sent more vans to finish the job.  
  
"This will make them listen to what I'm saying!" The Ghost thought.  
  
STAR Labs fell down gracefully, in a heap of rubble.  
  
The Flash, still travelling the time stream, felt a strange sensation under his feet. He looked down, only to see that the treadmill was gone. It was obvious what had happened. Someone had altered the past and deleted something, in the process eliminating the treadmill.  
  
The Flash floated around the time stream, helplessly. He tried to vibrate himself into a time period, but it did not work. It seemed like he was in for a long, cold eternity.  
  
CHAPTER V:  
  
He vibrated more and more, hoping that somehow, a rip in the time stream would occur, allowing him to move to a certain time period.  
  
Suddenly, a hand grabbed the Flash and propped him up. It was a young man wearing a costume identical to Barry's, on a treadmill identical to the one that had broken earlier on. But it was not Barry. It could not have been. Barry also noticed that there was a small man dressed in a red and blue suit standing on the man's shoulder.  
  
"What's going on?" Barry asked.  
  
"We can't tell you!" The tiny man said. "Anything we say or do might alter the time stream!"  
  
Their treadmill landed in Central City, somewhere in the eighties. They set Barry down and started the treadmill up again, hoping to return to their own time.  
  
"Wait!" Barry shouted at them.  
  
"Don't worry," the young Flash said. "You'll meet us eventually. I promise."  
  
The time stream ripped open in front of them and the treadmill flew straight into it.  
  
"It's ten to midnight Central City." The Ghost taunted. "You still haven't done anything about my demands. I think Central Hospital should be the first building to go up, don't you? One hour."  
  
The Flash watched this from outside a television store. How would he find the Ghost now? Suddenly, he had a thought. Tina had suggested that he try and do it before, but he had never gotten around to doing it. The Flash ran faster and faster, breaking the speed of sound, breaking the speed of light. He ran so fast then, that strange colours flew past him and into the television set. The Ghost's pirate signal was still playing a blank screen. The Flash started following the signal that was heading toward the televisions. It boasted a strange purplish colour.  
  
It was an abandoned warehouse. As it happened, the Flash recognized it as the place where he and Nightshade captured the Ghost before.  
  
Inside, the Ghost was readying his television disruption systems. He was first going to give the city one more chance to pay up, and then when they did not, he would use his remote control device to blow up every car in the city. And no one would be able to stop him.  
  
"You're going down Ghost!" The Flash jumped on top of the Ghost, knocking him to the ground.  
  
"How did you get here?" the Ghost asked.  
  
But Flash did not answer. He was about to throw a punch, when the Ghost caught him with his own hand. He then pushed the Flash off of him with unimaginable strength, knocking the Flash into the wall across the room.  
  
"Superhuman performance enhancers." The Ghost explained. "You'd be amazed of the experiments that will take place in the future!"  
  
The Flash ran at the Ghost at super-speed, but all the Ghost had to do was veer out of the way the millisecond that the Flash was about to charge into him. The Flash fell to the ground and the Ghost zoomed toward him. He grabbed the Flash's wounded shoulder and squeezed it tightly. The Flash screamed in agony at the Ghost's iron grip.  
  
The Ghost then grabbed the Flash's arm and twisted it around, breaking it. The Flash wailed once more and the Ghost palmed him in the chin. He then ripped off the Flash's mask revealing Barry Allen.  
  
"I know you!" He said. "You conducted forensic experiments on the warehouse after I was caught. With that scientist, Tina Mc Gee!"  
  
"That's me," The Flash gasped.  
  
"Well," the Ghost smiled. "soon you will be dead. Then I will travel back in time and kill your little girlfriend before she is even born. Just for laughs."  
  
Barry felt a surge of anger pass through his body as he leapt to his feet and smacked the Ghost in the back. Then he tripped him up and threw him across the room.  
  
The time warp remote fell out of the Ghost's rear pocket, and he fell on it, smashing it. Suddenly, light flew in every direction, swallowing up the Ghost and any computer equipment around him and sending them into the time stream for all eternity. Barry backed away cautiously as the time stream unevenly closed itself.  
  
"Now how do I get out of here?" He wondered.  
  
CHAPTER VII:  
  
He wandered the warehouse for a while, eventually finding a hidden room. Inside, there were two huge freezer-like chambers. Inside one of them was the figure of a young man. His body was frozen stiff.  
  
"A cryogenic freezing chamber!" Barry realized.  
  
He headed into the one across the room and set it to the year 1991. He set the date for the exact day that he left on the time treadmill. He stepped inside as freezing gasses filed the room.  
  
Barry's eyes suddenly went back into action. His joints were stiff and he had a nasty headache. But his wound had healed and it did not feel painful anymore.  
  
He ran toward STAR Labs where he hoped Tina was waiting.  
  
The Flash moved up to the treadmill and started running. Faster and faster. The sound barrier broke. Tina stepped back. Even more speed ensued until it appeared that his feet were not even there.  
  
Lightning-like energy tore out from under the treadmill, twirling around and around, creating a vortex.  
  
"It's working! Good job Barry!"  
  
"Uh, Tina?" Barry asked as he increased his speed. "Are you sure this thing is safe?"  
  
But he could not get an answer. The vortex was moving in the Flash's direction.  
  
The vortex swallowed the Flash and the treadmill up as Tina stood, dazed that her invention had actually worked. Suddenly, she heard a thunderous sound, and she spun around. It was Barry.  
  
"That was quick!" She exclaimed.  
  
Barry smiled and went inside to tell her everything that had happened.  
  
EPILOGUE:  
  
Barry sat at home reading the following night, when he heard a knock at the door. He went over and opened it, only to find his younger sister Anna, with a tiny baby in her arms.  
  
"Anna!" Barry smiled.  
  
He pecked her on the cheek and looked at the baby.  
  
"Who's this?"  
  
"This is Wally." She answered. "Wally West."  
  
THE END 


End file.
